The Assembly of "Pangea Ultima"

(to run animation, drag mouse across
image)

This animation shows the motions of the continents into the future.
(Be patient, it may take a minute or so to download the Java applet and
images to your computer.) This animation was made by projecting present-day
plate motions into the future, and trying to take into account unpredictable events, such
as the formation of new subduction zones. By extending present-day plate
motions into the future we can easily predict that Africa will collide with southern
Europe closing the Mediterranean, that Australia will collide with S.E. Asia and China,
and California will slide northward along the west coast.

Subduction is now beginning in the Central Indian Ocean, and it seems
likely that new subduction zones will form off the east coast of the Americas.
(Subduction has already begun in the Puerto Rican trench and Scotia arc.) If this
happens, then Antarctica will be drawn northward towards India, and the Atlantic will
close forming a new ring-shaped Pangea.

The dark blue areas are deep ocean basins. The light blue areas are
flooded continental shelves and oceanic plateaus. The tan areas are land, and the yellow
areas are mountains. The continents are covered by the sea when there is a lot of
rifting going on, and they are emergent when the continents are in collision.

All these animations are available on CD-ROM in Quicktime format.
For more information see Teaching Materials

This page uses a java applet that displays a VR model. Visit FreedomVR
at www.honeylocust.com/vr/ for more
information about this applet.